Through nine seasons as an Ontario Colleges Athletic Association men's basketball coach, Thomas Cory has set high standards for himself and his teams.

In that time, Cory-coached teams have never had a losing record and have missed the OCAA playoffs only once.

Beginning with four seasons at Sault College, Cory took the Cougars to the playoffs every year, always with a winning record.

And since departing Sault College to head across town to Algoma University, the Thunderbirds have made the playoffs in four of five seasons. The only time Algoma did not make the playoffs with Cory at the helm was his first year at AU when the A-men just missed advancing to the postseason with a .500 record.

Now prepping for his sixth year at AU following a 2010-11 campaign in which his team posted a 12-6 record en route to a spot at the OCAA provincial playdowns, Cory has the A-men on course for what he expects to be another winning season.

While local product Patrick Murray has graduated from AU after five years as arguably the best player in the school's OCAA history, Cory has a core of six returning veterans for the 2011-12 season led by 2010-11first-West team all star Dele Oworu.

A fifth-year starter who came to AU from Winnipeg, Oworu is not only a prolific scorer but one of the OCAA's best rebounding forwards.

Oworu is one of several outstanding out-of-town recruits that Cory has brought to AU over the years.

Indeed, while Cory has established himself as a solid OCAA game coach, it's his recruiting skills that have made AU one of the premier men's basketball programs.

"Recruiting never ends," Cory told Mika Media. "Our team is set for this season but

Cory explained the work that goes into recruiting. "For every 20 players that we target as potential recruits, we might get one player, two if we're lucky," he said. Cory works year-round as the head of basketball operations at AU and admitted that "from September to March, it's a lot of fun with the practices, scrimmages and games. But from March through the summer it's a tough job, finalizing the recruiting process...a lot of a paper work, a lot of e-mails." Recruiting has yielded the A-men several new players for the 2011-12 season including point guard Jovain Wilson from Pickering, Ont. Wilson, who was the OCAA player-of-the year for the 2009-10 season while at Sir Sanford Fleming College, spent the 2010-11 term at Carleton University, where he red-shirted because of an injury. Besides Wilson, other out-of-town newcomers to the AU program for the upcoming season are Brett Zufelt from Newmarket, Chris Offspring from Burlington, Renaldo Carnkie from Hamilton, Keith Golding from Burlington, Tirus Mwangi from Niagara Falls and Joey Puddister from North Bay. Cory has set an initial goal for the 11-12 season of making the playoffs in the always-competitive, 10-team OCAA Region.

"I suspect we're going to be a tough team to beat," said Cory. To be sure, there should be no doubting Thomas, given Cory's OCAA track record as a coach and before that, a player. After a stellar high school career locally at Bawating, Cory moved on to Durham College in Oshawa and was OCAA men's basketball rookie of the year in 1996. A high-scoring guard, Cory then led Durham to the men's basketball national championship in 1997. And now, onward and upward go Coach Cory and the A-men.